[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 15, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        H-1B VISAS A RENEGING ON THE PROMISE TO AMERICAN WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, just a few comments on some of the 
things that we have heard over these last few 5-minute Special Orders. 
I hope the American people who were listening understand what H-1B 
Visas are all about. We had several Members come down to the well and 
talk in glorious terms how important H-1B Visas are and about how we 
are going to give jobs, 200,000 jobs, to people who are the first 
string picks from overseas.
  No, I am sorry, I would like to have 200,000 Americans have those 
jobs. H-1B Visas is nothing more than a reneging on the promise to the 
American worker that, when supply and demand means that their wages 
will go up, that we will, instead, import people from overseas to keep 
their wages down.

                              {time}  1645

  We do not need to import people into this country for high-tech jobs. 
We need to make sure our high-tech industries, which are making a 
whopping profit right now, spend that profit in training Americans for 
those jobs rather than giving them to 200,000 Pakistanis or Indians or 
others who will work for $25,000 a year and taking those jobs away from 
Americans who would be earning $75,000 a year. So H-1B visas are no 
gift to the American people.
  I hope those people listening to the arguments that were just 
presented understand who is getting ripped off and who is being 
attacked here and who is being rewarded. Big business is being rewarded 
so they can keep their wages low, and the American worker is getting 
shafted with these H-1B visas.
  Now, as far as human rights, which is something that we heard about 
today, and the President's visit to the subcontinent, let me just say 
that this administration has the worst human rights record of any 
administration in the history of this country. And it will be 
underscored again when the President visits the subcontinent and also 
underscored, of course, by the President's ongoing policy towards 
China.
  First, let us look at China. The President is now lobbying this body 
to provide China with permanent WTO status, meaning a membership in the 
WTO and giving it permanent normal trade relations with the United 
States of America. Again, a shafting of the American working people in 
order to grovel before a dictatorship that uses slave labor overseas.
  Yet Beijing, while the President is lobbying us, saying, oh, this 
will make the Chinese better and a nicer regime, more hospitable to 
human rights and democracy, they are in the midst of a campaign 
designed to eradicate a small religious sect based on yoga and 
meditation, the Falun Gong sect. They are also in the midst of threats 
and bluster and arming themselves to the teeth in order to commit 
forceful action against the little democracy on Taiwan. This, the 
world's worst human rights abuser and belligerent country is now, what, 
the country that this President wants us to give permanent normal trade 
relations to, to make them part of the WTO. Again, an undermining of 
democracy.
  When the President goes to the subcontinent, yes, there are a lot of 
issues to be had. It was a wrong decision on the President's part to 
visit Pakistan when we had just had a military clique overthrowing a 
democratic government in Pakistan. That in itself is a horrible message 
around the world to democracies that are struggling and in societies 
where the military might be inclined to take over that government. So 
at least the President should skip Pakistan until they have made a 
commitment to return to democratic government. Yet that will not 
happen.
  And when he goes to India, the President will not, I am sure, mention 
the problem in Kashmir. Because although my colleagues in the well a 
few minutes ago ignored that issue, the Indian government is involved 
with massive human rights abuses in Kashmir. The problem is not 
terrorism in Kashmir; the problem is the fact that India will not 
permit the people of Kashmir to have a plebiscite, which was mandated 
by the United Nations 40 years ago, and give them an alternative to 
solve their problem through the ballot box as to what country they 
would like to be part of. Instead, India controls Kashmir with an iron 
fist.
  So we have a President ignoring human rights and democracy, visiting 
Southeast Asia, undermining the very fundamentals that will make this 
world a better place. It will not be a better place by ignoring 
Communist Chinese violations of human rights and democracy. It will not 
be a better place if the President goes to South Asia and ignores the 
military takeover of a democratic government in Pakistan. And it will 
not be a better place when the President goes to India and ignores the 
human rights violations in Kashmir.

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